News

Wine: Secrets to veggies and vino

By Jessica Yadegaran

Contra Costa Times

Posted:
08/11/2014 12:00:00 PM PDT

Updated:
08/14/2014 02:17:32 PM PDT

Right now, I'm helping a friend, a vegetarian of 20 years, plan the menu for her late summer wedding. We've narrowed it down to burrata salad with peaches and gnocchi with chanterelles. For the salad, I chose an aromatic white wine with a touch of residual sugar. For the gnocchi with mushrooms? An earthy pinot, natch.

But not all vegetarian wine pairings are that easy. Vegetables can be particularly tricky because of their green characteristics -- some, such as artichokes and asparagus, have components that make them straight-up red wine no-nos. But if the complexities of the dish interact with the complexities of the wine, everything will shine, including your okra. Especially right now, at the pinnacle of summer's bounty.

Jon Grant, winemaker for Couloir and Straight Line, is a vegan. One of his favorite pairings is tempranillo with vegetarian pizza.
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Photographer: Rudy Meyers
)

There are dozens of Bay Area restaurants where you can experience amazing meat-free food and wine pairings, from Berkeley's Gather to San Francisco's Millennium. Another good place to pick up tips is Rutherford's St. Supery Estate Vineyards & Winery, which has an extensive pairing program and is holding a Veggies and Vino event Oct. 4.

Certified sommelier F. Scott Tracy manages the program, which is ever-evolving to meet the needs of the winery's diverse -- insert food allergy, intolerance or preference -- clientele. Ultimately, Tracy says, what's beautiful about wine as a beverage is that it makes food taste better. Yes, even carrots.

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"Wine and food is one plus one equals three," says Tracy, who says St. Supery's flagship white, a zippy sauvignon blanc, is his favorite for standing up to vegetal flavors. "What you're looking for is the right dancing partner."

He'll throw that sauv blanc against a Caesar salad or artichokes that have been roasted in the oven with onions and a drizzle of olive oil. "It's going to taste a lot less aggressive than if you steamed that artichoke," he says.

Making simple changes in cooking or even adding or mixing ingredients can make all the difference. Tracy likes to combine vegetables in a way that adds to their flavors and enriches their textures. Nutty arugula becomes rich and sweet in the presence of butternut squash. The same goes for bitter endive with avocado.

But his most enticing pairing is St. Supery's full-bodied, inky petit verdot with a spicy Mongolian eggplant with black bean sauce. The mixture of ponzu, plum jam, harissa and the petit verdot itself provides both contrast and highlights for the rich wine, softening the tannins and broadening the mouthfeel, he says.

Texture is everything for winemaker Jon Grant, who stopped eating red meat when he was 12. The St. Helena-based winemaker, who makes wines under two labels, Couloir and Straight Line, now eats an exclusively plant-based diet.

"Even though we speak so much about the flavors and aromatics of wine, ultimately it's about texture," he says. "I've smelled many wines and thought I was going to love them, but then I taste them and find them thin or insipid in some way."

He says acid and salt are the keys. Here's his trick: Taste your wine. Taste your food. Taste your wine again. If the pairing is unpleasant, add a drop of lemon juice and a dash of salt to the food. Now, retaste.

"Chances are you brightened up the food to match the acidity level and flavor in the wine," Grant says. Some of his weeknight go-tos: pizza with his light, Straight Line tempranillo; Indian curry and his spicy, Marin County pinot noir; and Thai coconut curry with his rich yet balanced, barrel-fermented, Santa Barbara sauvignon blanc.

Because it is summer, however, Grant's biggest pairing secret is in his backyard: his grill.

He says: "With the caramelization and char and the hint of smokiness that comes off the grill, you could enjoy vegetables this way all day with pinot noir."

Join the wine educators at St. Supery Estate Vineyards & Winery for a vegetarian food and wine tasting in honor of World Vegetarian Day. They will guide you through an exploration of exciting vegetarian small bites and four of their Napa Valley estate wines. 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Oct. 4, 8440 St. Helena Hwy., Rutherford. Tickets: $40 ($20 for wine club members). To reserve, call 707-963-4507 or email reservations@stsupery.com.

tips for pairing veggies and wine:

When making a sauce, add a bit of the wine you plan to drink.Roast vegetables with salt and olive oil,Vegan pizza loves tempranillo,Sparkling wine goes with everything.A squeeze of lemon and dash of salt often solve a pairing problem.Experiment with texture and flavor blends -- try butternut squash with arugula and avocado with endiveWhen in doubt, grill, grill, grill.